Some Updates

Well, Mackenzie is 6  weeks today! Time has really gone by so quickly and my baby is growing up so fast. She already looks so different. She is also very strong-she holds her head up a lot and was trying to roll over earlier this week! She went from back to stomach, but couldn't figure out how to get her arm out from under her. It has been fun having her be more alert and she has her dad's eyes. We are also doing well with a routine. I feed her every 3 hours starting at 7am and she is usually tired about an hour after waking. She likes to sleep swaddled, and once she gets all bundled up, it usually doesn't take her long to fall asleep. We've been blessed with two very easy babies - I really hope it lasts with Mackenzie! 

Reilly has been talking a lot lately - speaking in sentences a lot more and repeating what we say. We've also started her on vitamins, and they might be the highlight of her day. Whenever she hears me getting out my vitamins, she runs over and asks for hers. Most of the time she hangs on to them, savoring the delicious cherry flavor for as long as possible. She also loves to share my fiber drinks and if I don't drink most of it before giving it to her, I hardly get any. We're definitely getting healthy at our house!
This morning Reilly was drawing pictures with Daddy and she asked him to draw "hair, eyes, nose, feet, knees." I clarified that she wanted him to draw a person. Of course she did.
She also sang a song over and over for more than 30 minutes. It included all the hand motions, but we couldn't understand a word. She told us she learned the song at church.
Chris also has her saying "GO Broncos!" whenever he can get a word in.

I have a lot more pictures of Mackenzie but they are not available to me for this post. I will hopefully put them on soon!

Mackenzie Rose is here!

We are happy to announce our beautiful newest addition! 

Mackenzie Rose Loyd

8.26.12

10:08am

7 pounds, 15 ounces - 19.5 inches

My labor was only 7 and a half hours long, and progressed wonderfully. I didn't have a normal labor experience with Reilly, so I didn't quite know what to expect. It was still very hard and I don't want to do it again until I forget what it was like. :) It was of course worth it though!

 Reilly has enjoyed holding her new baby sister very much. A couple of times since being home she has run to the couch, put a pillow on her lap and said, "baby please." We also are learning how to be careful  around the baby and have luckily only had a few minor incidents.

I was very insistent on leaving the hospital as soon as possible and we were discharged after 24hours. Recovery has been completely different than the first time and SO much better. I am not exhausted like I was last time and feel like I can actually enjoy the newborn stage. Unfortunately with Reilly I was tired for weeks, rested whenever possible and because of that, missed out on snuggling my newborn. :( I am grateful to get to do it again.

We are all doing wonderfully and are settling in to being a family of four. Mackenzie is eating and sleeping better than I could have hoped and we are already getting into a rhythm. I have another week and a half off from work and all my sisters coming to help, so I am excited to just sit back and it enjoy it.

Cheers

Reilly is TWO!

Two blog posts in one week is quite unheard of these days, but I thought I would quickly let you all know about Reilly's second birthday! We have had so much fun these past two years with her, have been blessed beyond measure because of her, and can't wait to see what this new year has in store! MOST of the time she is a real sweetie and she brings us so much joy.

Reilly slept in today (must have been treating herself) but once she was up and running we started off her birthday right with a real treat: fruit smoothie! Then we put on her ballerina dress. The day continued normally until after nap time when she and I made a birthday cake! She saw me put the butter in the bowl and was already running over with her stool and saying "Mommy help! Mommy help!" She loves to help me bake anything. After we were finished it was snack time and I let her watch a Baby Einstein while she was eating. We played outside until Daddy came home, ate dinner, took a bath, and then had cake and ice cream. And more ice cream. Couldn't say no to that face.

I believe in the video Reilly tells you that she is two and that it is a "happy day." She has been saying those two things all day - maybe she really knows what is going on? I wouldn't put it past her because she is pretty smart. :) Well, I had better cut this blog off now lest you start having too high of expectations.

Happy Day!

Reilly Taking a Trip

Before I shot this video today, Reilly had everything you see in the video except her hat. She had already bid her farewells to me and left the house but came running back saying "hat! hat!" Once she was sure she had all see needed, she set off again. Luckily for us she didn't get too far. :)

July So Far

Reilly usually likes to read a bed time story and here she and Chris got cozy with the caterpillar and read her number book. It's always the number book. On the bright side, she knows a lot more numbers than she used to. :) Whenever I can get her to read a different book I always jump on the chance because it doesn't happen very often. Also you will notice in the picture that Reilly was wearing her new pajamas which include a little green tutu. It was in instant favorite.

We are hearing a lot of new words everyday, but Reilly always love to put "big" in front of words. So, we always talk about the big dog (who lives at cousin Felicity's house), big trucks we see out the window, big balloons, etc. Whenever we leave the house (even just to get the mail) we have to say bye to all the toys and the house itself. It takes us a while to get anywhere. Reilly constantly asks for "one more" and when we say no more, she asks "two?" When she gets hungry she either says "snack" or goes straight to "mac and cheese?" We don't eat mac and cheese very often, so it's a nice treat. Her "milk" sounds a lot like "no" (which is confusing) and when she wants water she says "R." When don't get to see my parents as much as we would like, but we are constantly talking about/calling on a fake phone Papa, Nana and Gigi. Reilly usually graces them with a song while she is talking to them on her fake phone as well. We also get some nice tunes out of Reilly whenever we are driving in the car. 

As far as everything else goes, July has been much cooler than June and therefore much more manageable. PTL! On Thursday I will only have 5 weeks left to go of the pregnancy but still hopefully enough time to get all prepared for her arrival. One of our bigger tasks will be to figure out how to fit in all the extra baby stuff we will need in our midst. We are also working on transitioning all the cleaners and other toxic chemical laden things OUT of our house. Reilly had a few close calls that I can remember, and after doing some research we found a company that offers many different products (cleaning, bath items - among other things) that are non-toxic at a great price. Facts are facts and you just can't watch your kid every second of the day, so the better solution is to get rid of the harmful things that they might get into. It will give me a much greater peace of mind...especially since there will be two that I will have to worry about. :)

Other than that, we are hoping to take things as easy as possible (although just yesterday we bought a used table and chairs that needs refinishing...not exactly relaxing).

Thanks for catching up with us!

IA, ND trip

Unfortunately I didn't take very many pictures on our trip to IA or ND. Below you will only find three. 

It was a long road trip to Fargo and Bethany graciously took the back seat and played with the kids when they all weren't snoozing.

Although we didn't get to the pool right away, we did eventually. Reilly had a great time splashing!

 Liam also enjoyed himself. Bethany and I didn't really enjoy the pool much at all for ourselves. I guess that's what happens when you have kids! Neither Chris nor Josh were able to come up for the wedding and it helped Bethany and I appreciate how they are normally there to relieve us when we need it.

As far as I know, the wedding went off without a hitch. We also had a lot of fun on the dance floor afterwards. Reilly found a friend and they were twirling all over the dance floor long after everyone else was exhausted. She didn't resist going to bed that night!

Reilly and I flew stand by home on Delta, and didn't have any problems. It's so nice when you make the flights you are hoping to! It did wear me out though, and I am not planning on taking anymore trips until our train ride back home for Thanksgiving. I'm exciting about taking a train! It was our cheapest option for our soon to be family of four.

I am 29 weeks as of yesterday and I am trying to not take my remaining time for granted. Multiple friends over the past couple of weeks have delivered up to FOUR weeks early, so that really doesn't give me much time. We also "celebrated" our four year anniversary yesterday. We didn't really celebrate though. We just had a normal dinner, which was just so-so. :)

Until next time.

Children's Museum

The kids group from our church decided to plan a day to the children's museum so that we could all get a group discount. When you say discount, we are THERE. This was our first time there and we were pleasantly surprised at all the fun options there for kids.

 We had to get on the gear before we could board the fire truck.

 In deep thought on the fire truck

 In the train making room...we had lots of trouble with that pesky bridge

 Bubble laboratory! This girl loves bubbles and these were the biggest bubbles of all time!

 Shopping at the store, picking up stuff for dinner

Getting creative with the paints